Fancyclopedia I: C - Cosmic Circle

C - A most ambiguous
letter, serving no good purpose in modern
English. In Latin and Anglo-Saxon
it was always pronounced K; in Esperanto
and outlandish tungs of southern
Europe, it stands for various unspeakable
sounds.

cabinet -
Where there is no policy-making Board, the president
or director of an
organization frequently asks the opinion of the other
elected officers in
his administration before deciding on something. In
such case all the
officers taken together constitute the cabinet.

capitalism -
The economic system under which those who finance
a business own and
control it, and operate it for their own profit. It is
opposed to
socialism, in which control rests among a large number of people
who are
interested in production for use rather than for profit. Implicit
in
capitalism is the idea that it is up to the individual to find something
to
do that he can get money for. None of the fans who actively engage
in
arguments support capitalism, but several of the older men, noteably
Skylark
Smith and Doc Swisher, are firm believers in it.

capitalization - One of the cutenesses of modern decadence is
unuse of capital letters. This is strengthened by the fact that distinction
between capitals and lower case is pretty unnecessary, anyhow, and stems
to some extent from a pun on distaste for capitalism by Bohemians. Considerable
vers libre, as well as beardmutterings and other art forms, is habitually
written without capitals. Several fen, most notably damon knight, make it
a practice to have their names spelled without caps, and in the mock wars,
the First Staple War and FooFooism vs ghughuism, omission of capitals in
referring to the enemy is practiced by some of the combatants.

carbons - Short for carbon copies, especially those which smart
people keep of their correspondence.

cartoons - A cartoon is usually a single drawing in which, if
a story is implied, the conversation or actions of the characters must convey
it. Cartoons are simplified drawings; if the picture is of a type that is
not obviously distinguishable from fotography, it is not a cartoon. Bei
uns this artype is usually fan-fictional: a fan takes a look at his new
son and says 'Oh my God! Tendrils!', ktp. Often seen are pages of toothpick
figures doing varied things in the manner of American Legion cartoonist
Wallgren. Caricature is a near cousin of the cartoon.

chain letters - In Great Britain after the outbreak of WWII, Youd
organized chains of fans to each of which he would circulate a page or more
of news, and each fan on the chain would add a page and pass the bundle
on to the next guy. When they all came back to him, Youd made selections
from the material and typed up another sheet or so of news and comments,
carbon copied, and sent copies out along the chains again. Some of these
also came to America, and on this example, after Pearl Harbor, Harry Warner
started several chains thru the US. The system worked out here was slightly
different, in that Harry sent the whole bundle on, and each fan as he added
a new letter withdrew his former one and sent it to Harry for file. Quasi-chain
letters also grew out of the circulation of sonodiscs, and other chains
were started by various fen to get material for fanzines, even one by Tucker
to which each person was to contribute fotos which would be reproduced in
Le Zombie. These chains were not intended to circulate indefinitely, but
some of them and all of the continuous ones sooner or later got hung up
somewhere along the way. In 1943 the War Department issued orders against
such chains where several soldiers were on them.

Christmas Card - In 1939 Will Sykora received a card carrying
an insulting looking object and saying "To help you make merry Christmas
Eve", and other things. It appeared to be a Futurian joke, and for
transmission of such materials thru the mails, Sykora put the postal
authorities
on the trail and offered a reward for information, but was never able to
prove anything.

circular - A one-shot single-sheeter, concerning one subject only,
and often without a title. They have often been used in DAPA campaigns and
the battles of Michelism.

Claire Voyant - A pename of Ackerman's. It is obviously derived
from clairvoyant, but whether it has any significance your editor knows
not.

club - An organization of persons who meet in person every so
often; the word is often misused. Fan groups with this name include the
Impossible Story Club, ICSC, JVPC, WGCC, Outsiders' Club, SFCC, Stranger
Club, Solaroid Club, and Cosmos Club.

collecting - A deep instinct of man, particularly strong in fankind.
A typical old-time stfan began by excerpting and binding the particular
stories he liked best in Amazing and Weird; then, either because he saw
the desirability of having all the stories on file, began to save all the
prozines without tearing them up; when fanzines came along, he saved them
too as a matter of course; and eke Buck Rogers 2429 AD. The real trouble
begins when you become a completist. Storage space eventually becomes a
problem. Fans' filing methods vary, but they do really need to have their
collections where they can be easily referred to. Scrapbooks are a common
supplement to magazine collections. Part of any fan visit is inspection
of the visitee's collection.

collectivism - Public control of industry, farming, and associated
activity, directed toward the general welfare. It is the one idea on which
scientifictional sociologists have been agreed for the future civilization,
at least until around 1938.

colloquialism - Much of the material in fanzines, and practically
all the correspondence of fans, is to be regarded as conversation rather
than finished writing. It rambles on from point to point in a manner like
the stream of consciousness, with many a parenthesized remark. Contractions
are freely employed wherever contractions would be used in speaking, and
some places where they wouldn't. Slang and dialectic pronunciations are
flung indiscriminately, such phrases as "mah pappy's jernt" not
being at all unusual. Foreign languages are interlarded whenever the writer
feels the urge. To avoid confusion, however, people are usually called by
their surnames, or by a distinctive nickname.

Columbia Camp - The local of idiots centering around Columbia
South Carolina. No formal organization or officers. They included Joe Gilbert,
Harry Jenkins Jr., Lee Eastman, and W B McQueen, but Joe went into the
Mercenary
Marine, Lee wandered away job-hunting, Harry got a heavy case of manana
fever, and Panurge disappeared from our ken. While active, they sparked
the DFF and Dixie Press.

columnists - When a guy is a columnist, he can talk about anything
he wants to, tho the editor may censor him. Usually his secondary duty is
to give any news items or information that haven't been published elsewhere,
and primary duty is to comment on things in general. Every so often a columnist
will attract notice by the Menckenian vigor of his denunciations.

Comet Publications - Originally a publishing house covering all
the Philadelphia fans, the term seems to have narrowed down to John
Beltadonis.

committees - Groups of people, usually three or five, appointed
to render decision or recommendation in some matter, or perform some act.
Standing committees are prescribed in the constitution; others exist only
for a temporary purpose. Committees of fan organizations include the convention
committee, appointed to plan and execute a fan gathering, the ballot committee
appointed at election time, Laureate Committee, Plancom, Fincom, Welcom,
et autres.

Committees formed by mutual agreement outside the machinery of any
organization
are characteristic particularly of Leftists in the United States, and the
fan groups of this sort have been Michelistic. These include the Science
Fiction Committee Against Fascism, which at the end of 1938 circulated a
petition of modified Michelism, and the CPASF.

communism - Communism with a small c designates a society which
gets production from each according to his abilities and gives products
to each according to his needs. It is more or less anarchistic in that it
hopes that coertion by the state will be unnecessary.

Communism with a large C, which is what fans usually mean, is Marxism
as modified by Lenin and Stalin, plus the tactics of Earl Browder and Harry
Bridges.

completist - A dope who tries to have a complete collection in
some line. The line may be as broad as having all the prozines ever published,
or as narrow as collecting all the Golden Atom tales or all official
correspondence
during one's incumbency in some office. The trouble arises when the collector
misses purchasing an issue (or fails to keep a carbon copy, or whatever),
or when his ambitions extend back to a time before he started saving the
stuff. Then he prowls the 2d-hand magazine shops, writes letters to everybody
who mite know where a particular prize is, worries librarians and other
public servants, and occasionally makes a marvelous find in some unexpected
place and goes around rejoicing. A novel type of completism is Rothman's
record and determination of attending every major convention held in this
country.

composing in the stick - Making up what you are saying as you
type the stencil. The expression comes from hand-set printing, where the
letters for each line are thrust into a "stick". A great deal
of the contents of individ fanzines and editorials in other fmz are composed
"in the stick", without dummying.

confabulation - A fan gathering larger than a fan visit (that
is, it should involve fans from more than one locality besides that in which
it occurs), but not being built up or attended or conducted like a conference.

The name is a new one, and almost the only events so called so far have
been the Washington Confabulations. The first of these was in early 1940,
when Perdue, recently arrived from Wyoming, Rothman, not long from
Philadelphia,
and Speer, of Washington for more than a year, got together and called
themselves
a confabulation. The second was in the summer of 1941, when Dr and Mrs Swisher
visited the Washington Worry-Warts, and Chauvenet came up from Charlottesville.
This Confabulation issued the Washington Manifesto. Joe Gilbert's visit
in October was also called a confabulation. Unger has referred to the
Scientiforums
as confabulations.

conference - A smaller convention, which should have a specific
purpose to be accomplished aside from the cameraderie. The word came into
use after the Newark Convention, and has been used to designate the following:

The PSFS Conference in October 1938, Philadelphia. It was attended by
the fans who were launching New Fandom, a number of their backers among
the pros, and others.

In June 1939 the OSA Powwow met in an Oklahoma City hotel room, attended
by McPhail and former Oklahomans from Washington and New Mexico/Flushing.

Third day of the Nycon, where most of the attendees were playing softball
on Flushing Flats, the Futurians and their sympathizers met in a Futurian
Conference. They discussed the Exclusion Act and Michelism.

The Philco of 1939 was held in the same hall as the Third Eastern Conv
rathern in the back of the Baltadonis saloon. Futurians and Queensies were
both present in force, for the last time at any one gathering, and a fite
almost happened between Sykora and Wollheim. The discussion was on a general
fan organization; Rothman, Speer, and Kyle wanted to launch a new one, each
having ideas about what it should be. The Triumvirs presented their
constitution
for New Fandom and attempted unsuccessfully to get it approved. No conclusion
about a new org was reached. Sykora showed fan movies afterwards. Several
Bloomington (or Chicon) Conferences, including the Barnyard Con, were held
in 1939 and 1940 to plan the Chicon, attendees being Reinsberg, Korshak,
Tucker, and other figures, but not including W Lawrence Hamling, another
prominent Chicago fan, who objected for reasons of anti-Semitism. The last
Philly Conference was in November 1940, in a GAR hall. It was called the
Fifth Annual, the first and third Conventions also being counted. Chief
bone of contention in 1940 was the proposed Newarkon.

This Newark Conference was intended as something for Easterners to attend
who couldn't go to the Denvention in 1941. Fandom generally refused to support
the idea because it was believed that it would conflict with the Denvention,
and Sykora and Moskowitz laid the responsibility for the idea to Taurasi,
who wasn't at the Philadelphia meeting. The Newarkon did not take place.

Boskones are held in February of each year, beginning in 1941, the first
anniversary of the Stranger Club. No set schedule of proceedings has emerged.
The first heard of the (???????) died in the SFL scrap.

A Dixiecon was planned for 1941 at Columbia South Carolina, but canceled
because the president of the DFF, Earl Barr Hanson, couldn't come up from
Florida at the time set.

The Michiconference originated in November 1941, and was attended by
more fans from elsewhere in the Mid-East than from Michigan, which was no
small number. They formed the Mid-West Fantasy Fan Federation. Fan movies
were shown, and an auction held.

Another Philco was belatedly announced for January 1942, but called off
in favor of Boskone II. B2 was well attended, witnessed the dramatization
of Legion of Legions, and discussed the NFFF and the problem of the Pacificon.

In November 1942 the Michiconference became an annual matter. Degler
was seen at close range, the MFS boys got stewed, everybody met everybody
else, and a good time was had by all.

The Hastings S-F Conference was allegedly held in Hastings Minnesota
29 November 42; if so, it was an alcoholic affair, judging by the report
of it which was published.

Because of attrition of fan ranks by the draft, Boskone III had a small
attendance. Most of the afternoon was taken up with playing Widner's s-f
game, Interplanetary, which was still in an experimental stage.

Altho the Mid-West Federation was dormant, the Galactic Roamers invited
individual fen to another Michiconference at the end of October 43. Attendees
gave Slan Shack its baptism of fire, took an intelligence test, and stuff.
The so-bekannt Cosmic Circle Exclusion Act was in connection with this
gathering.

convention - A large fan gathering, the formerly used of any fan
gathering.

The first Science-Fiction Convention was at Philadelphia in 1936, when
the NYB-ISA visited the Philadelphia branch. It was marked by horseplay
and cameraderie.

The Second Eastern States Science-Fiction Convention was held in New
York early in 1937, under the auspices of the ISA. The chief event, aside
from the first mention of a World Science Fiction Convention, was a handshake
between Wollheim and Julius Schwartz which ended the warfare of their factions.

The Third Eastern Science-Fiction Convention was back in Philadelphia
on Hallowe'en of 1937. Most notable event was the speech launching Michelism.
On the liter side was the Shaggoth 6 thing.

The Newark Convention, officially the First National Science-Fiction
(or Fantasy) Convention, was held at Newark on 29 May 38, on call of Will
Sykora and Sam Moskowitz. It was marred by sniping and feuding on the subjects
of Michelism, the ISA, the WSFC, and personalities, but was the first to
pass the hundred mark in attendance. Wollheimists called it the Fourth Eastern
for a long time.

Similarly they called the WSFCI the Fifth Eastern. The World Science-Fiction
Convention ("First" added later) was held in New York on 2 3 4
July 1939 under the auspices of New Fandom, and was the largest before the
war ended major conventions, approaching a total atttendance of 200. It
set the pattern for subsequent conventions lasting more than one day, but
was marred by the Exclusion Act.

The Chicago 1940 World Science-Fiction Convention was held at Chicago
around Labor Day 1940 under IFF auspices. The Chicon was significant of
the new harmony in fandom, and took place in snazzier surrounding than fen
had theretofore enjoyed save at the Paul Banquet on 3 July 39.

The Denvention was the Third World Science-Fiction Convention, Denver
4 5 6 July 1941. Guest of Honor Heinlein made an outstanding speech. Remarkable
too was the travelling that fans did to get there, the Widneride, riding
the rods, making the trip on a starvation shoestring, etc. The award for
the fan overcoming the greatest difficulties to attend was deserved by many.

The Fourth World Science-Fiction Convention, the Pacificon, was to be
held in Los Angeles in 1942, but it was finally voted to suspend it because
of the involvement of the United States in the war and threat to the West
Coast.

Great Britain's SFA had annual conventions at London in 1937, 1938, and
1939, which were featured by speeches from men of considerable standing
in the world of letters and science, and by consumption of great quantities
of beer, but your Diderot is unable to supply separate details.

The Midlands Science-Fiction Convention was scheduled for Birmingham
in April 43, under BFS auspices. This ignorant one has no subsequent report.

In addition to these main events (and the conferences and confabs), there
have been numerous meetings facetiously called conventions, included here
for the sake of completeness: The first Interplanetary S-F Convention was
held in a fone booth by Jack Gillespie and Cyril Kornbluth, sometime around
1938. The 4 r Eastern, or First Pan-National Science-Fiction Convention
was the meeting of Speer and Wilson in Philadelphia in 1938, called
Pan-National
because, unlike the "First National", it had a representative
from west of the Appalachians. The tendency more recently seems to be to
label all such pseudo-conventions as somethingcons, which has given us a
wave of such words as Sydcon, Pacificon Jr., Staplecon, Midgicon, Schnectacon,
Fancon, and Norcon.

Thru the three World Science-Fiction Conventions, a standard pattern
for such an event has emerged. Normally, there is one every year. There
is a special organization for people to join for publicity purposes, but
absolute control as to the program and rules of proceedings is given to
the local men. The prozines give the affair publicity, and sometimes local
papers write it up before or after. Slogans on the general model of "New
York in '39!" are repeated in fanzines and on envelopes of letters,
and every fan of fandom tried to figure out some means of attending, but
when the convention finally comes, a large fraction of its attendance is
of scientifictionists from in or near the convention city. The program runs
two or three days: the first day is planned for the business. On the first
day will be speeches by celebrities, showing of a fantasy movie, and a costume
party in the evening. Second day includes business matters connected with
the convention organization, and where to hold the next year's convention.
In the evening is a banquet in honor of a science-fiction celebrity who
is there (Paul in 1939, Smith in 1940, and Heinlein in 1941). The auction
is put wherever it can be fitted. There are get-togethers before and after
the convention days by those who arrive early &/or stay late.

The expression "world convention" has sometimes been called
into question, particularly by Britishers, since all attendees were from
the US except a possible Englishman at the Nycon and Conadian at the Chicon.
Ackerman has replied that we want the British fans to feel that these are
their conventions too, that the war prevented them from having any large
gatherings in 1940 and 1941, when America's last two were held. It mite
be compared to the "World Series", in which only American teams
participate, because more than half the baseball in the world is played
in the United States.

co-ordinator - Title of the head of certain organizations in the
Mid-East; suggests the function that Battle Creek believed a general fan
organization should perform, I e. avoiding duplication of effort. (as for
example if somebody else published a fan dictionary independently at the
same time as this), and bringing together fanpower for approved projects.

common-law copyright - Under statutory copyright a person has
the right for a limited time to prohibit publication or parafrazing of long
sections of a copyrighted work. Under the common-law copyright, however,
unless authorization to publish is implied (as in letters to the editor)
or expressed, the writer has absolute power to prohibit publication in any
way of anything he has written or drawn or composed. This rests on the rule
in common law that the product of a man's labor, including mental labor
(even tho slite!), is his to do with as he wishes. The common-law copyright
is lost upon registration for statutory copyright, upon general publication,
or abandonment. General publication consists in making the work available
to an indefinite portion of the general public. Publication in the FAPA
is not general publication, for instance, because the FAPA has membership
restrictions, but if one also offers his FAPA pub for sale to anyone with
a dime, he loses his control. Abandonment may be inferred from acquiescence
in unauthorized use, but unauthorized general publication does not in itself
destroy the common law rights. We mite add that statutory copyright is secured
by first publishing the thing, with a notice saying "Copyright Joe
Phan 1954" or something like, and then sending two copies and a
registration
form and fee to the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress. Publication
without such a notice constitutes dedication to the general public. Incidently,
articles by you in someone else's fanzine can be copyrighted by you.

correspondence - The chief fan activity is still letter-writing,
tho fan visits and pubbing fmz have reduced its importance somewhat. Letters
are written to pros, to fans as individuals, to fanzine editors, and to
chains of fans. The subject matter ranges from cabbages to kings; it includes
opinions on fan and prozines, problems in connection with organizations,
requests for information, diatribes in connection with fan feuds, arrangements
for visits, gossip about fans' personal affairs, news of fan activities,
discussion of philosophical and scientific and sociological points, directions
to easily available pornografy, musical preferences, cryptografy, hoaxes,
-- everything that goes into fanzine nonfiction, and more.

Certain rules should govern correspondence between fans. The SFL had
a rule that members must promise to answer promptly all correspondence
addressed
to them as SFLers. Unless he is a regular correspondent and knows that you
take longer to reply, a fan's letter should be answered or at least
acknowledged
by postcard within two months. Now we quote C L Dodgson: "..don't fill
more than a page and a half with apologies for not having written
sooner!

The best subject, to begin with, is your friend's last letter.
Write with the letter open before you. Answer his questions, and make any
remarks his letter suggests." In commenting on magazines, your Samuel
Johnson has found it convenient to make marginal notations, on first reading,
of remarks he will want to make in the letter of comment. Fans generally
typewrite their correspondence, and most of the most active ones keep carbon
copies; incoming correspondence certainly should always be filed, never
thrown away. Air mail is used when there is any excuse for it. In emergencies,
special delivery airmail is often resorted to, or telegrams and long distance
telephone calls. Nice people will respond to such communications within
twenty-four hours. Other requests for material which set a deadline require
compliance or regrets within the time set, when the fan has previously agreed
to supply the material (as by accepting appointment to a committee).

Fans delite in whimsical details such as putting the postage stamp on
upside down, or typing on the envelope cracks aimed at the postmaster. Another
whimsicality has become convention with many fen -- using a different
complimentary
close for each letter. In time they run out of the obvious ones, such as
"Love and kisses", and "Very sincerely yours"
(equivalent to a slap in the face), and "Sciencerelyours", and
start using such amazing good-byes as "Splfrsk!" and
"Majestatsbeleidigung!"

Cosmian League - A tear-off-the-name-strip organization sponsored
by Cosmic Stories; no activity except getting people to join up.

Cosmic Circle - Claude Degler attended the Chicon in 1940, and
at Denver in 1941 delivered a speech purporting to have been written by
Martians. He appears to have had some activity in the Indiana Fantasy
Association,
and a part in publishing a minor fanzine, Infinite. At the 1942 Michiconference
several attendees got bad impressions of him, but he was still virtually
unknown when he arrived late at the 1943 Boskone. Four months later he
reappeared
at the Schenectacon. In the intervening time, he appears to have received
his 4F classification, and spent a month hitchhiking thru the southeastern
states, with his mother in Newcastle Ind sending money orders to him along
the route, from funds he had saved. Getting names and addresses from the
readers' departments of the pros, he contacted various scientifictionists
unknown to fandom, and wherever they were willing, constituted each as a
local and a state organization, which he hoped would grow. The Circle of
Aztor (Tenn), Louisiana Fandom, Alabama All-Fans, Valdosta (Ga) Philosophers,
and Georgia Cosmen were created in this way. Since Degler was constantly
thinking up organization and conference names, they are not treated elsewhere
in this guidebook. At the "Live Oak Conference" with Raym Washington
and sister, he organized the Cosmic Thinkers (local), Florida Cosmos Society,
and reconstituted the Dixie Fantasy Federation, with Raym at its head.

From the South he made a triumphal return to Indiana, where such
organizations
as the Cosmic Club (later called the Futurian Society of Indiana), Circle
City Cosmic Society (Indianapolis), Muncie Mutants Irvington Circle (Indpls
suburb), and the Rose City Science Circle (Newcastle, formerly Buck Rogers
Club), were supposed to exist already. After earning some more money, he
departed late in June for the Schenectacon.

Thence to Boston, where he "had a long talk" with Widner on
such subjects as Slan Center. Later, in a remote hamlet in N H, the New
Hampshire FFF was formed. Visiting Jim Avery while the latter was home on
leave, Degler got the Maine Scientifiction Association declared revived,
then made the Mainecon Jr with Norman Stanley. After this he went into Quebec
to swear to the citizenship of an Indian girl who had hitchhiked thither
with him a year before and been detained. After forming the Future Fantasy
French at the "Quebec Conference" he returned alone to New York.

He slept on the floor at Little Jarnevon until some time after Schwartz
and Shaw began telling him to leave, and worked on some Cosmic Circle
publications
which were supposed to be angeled by someone in Indiana. In the Cosmic Circle,
which was to be a union of all persons everywhere who had a cosmic outlook,
these local and regional organizations were affiliated with the Planet Fantasy
Federation, whose Council included Don Rogers (the pseudonym for Degler
used in all his publications), Raym Washington, and some people around
Newcastle.
It is claimed that the movement was tested in Newcastle for years before
the missionary work began (1943 was the year 4 of the Cosmic Concept), but
information from other than Degler is very vague. There was Helen Bradleigh,
pseudonym for Joan Domnick, a teen-age girl whom townsmen had prevented
from starting the super-race with Degler, and who was head of the Psychological
Ministry because she was reading a book on psychology. A minor fanzine artist,
Morrie Jenkinson, appeared under the name of Rex Matthews. Also, not members
of the Cosmic Circle, were a younger girl, Martha Matley, who headed a
"vughu"
cult claiming connection with ghughuism, and Frankfort Nelson Stein, whose
existence has been questioned.

Shaw was at first impressed by Degler's ideas, and against his wishes
was named head of Slan Slum as a local organization and the Empire State
Slans. The autonomous Cosmen of the Island were headed (and constituted)
by Russell Wilsey, a new fan of Long Island. Larry and Claude also formed
the Hannes Bok Art Society, not affiliated with the Cosmic Circle, to
appreciate
the work of Bok. Degler took down the names and addresses, past and present,
on Fantasy Fiction Field's subscription list; this made up most of
his mailing list for the Cosmic Circle publications.

After Coordinator Claude left New York in August, many of the fanzines
of Schwartz's and Unger's collections were missing, and they charged that
Superfan took them. Because of this, and because Degler called on a girl
Larry knew, against his expressed wishes, and because the Cosmic Circle
was beginning to look grotesque, Larry Shaw resigned from the CC and declared
feud on Degler. Meanwhile, the latter's lanky form appeared briefly in
Philadelphia,
where Ozzie Train was bored and later, without his knowledge, named head
of a new Philadelphia Fantasy Society. Rogers then turned up in Hagarstown,
apparently intending to stay with Harry Warner for some time, but due to
illness in Warner's family was persuaded to move on. He caught a ride going
west, and visited some unknown scientifictionists in Oklahoma where the
Oklahoma Fantasy Circle was established, and set up the Manana Society de
Sonora and the Southwest Fantasy Foundation (comprising New Mexico, Nevada,
and Arizona).

Arriving in Shangri-La, he joined the LASFS and used the clubroom facilities
to publish weekly "news" sheets alternately titled Cosmic Circle
Commentator and Fanews Analyzer, and some publications written
by others and credited to them, tho reworked by him. The Circle Amateur
Publishers' Alliance was formed, which would have a mailing list of 500
(the Cosmic Circle claimed more than 200 members). In the weeekly sheets
the Cosmic Circle program reached full form: Don Rogers answered a positive
"Yes!" to the old question, "Are fans slans?" He proposed
to contact cosmic-minded mutants everywhere, using radio prograns and other
publicity to this end. Numerous special service bureaus, for functions such
as purchasing mimeo supplies cooperatively, supplying fans in the military
with free fan- and prozines, and planning tours for other travelling fans,
were announced as being set up in the Newcastle headquarters. Publications
projected included a directory of fans' addresses, True Fantastic
Experiences, Spicy Spaceship Stories, and others. A fanational
literature was urged to promote cohesiveness in the new race. It was announced
that a piece of land in Arkansas (owned by Degler's mother) was available
for use as Cosmic Camp by vacationing cosmen. The Slan Center idea was pushed
to its ultimate extreme, and the Coordinator foresaw the day when those
who now "carried" 22 states (that many state organizations were
claimed to exist), would inherit the solar system. The first stop was
organization
of exactly the type that fanarchists snort at. With the demise of the NFFF,
Degler said, the Third Fandom had ended, and the Fourth Fandom was now coming
into existence under the aegis of the Planet Fantasy Federation. Pending
their consent (which was emphatically not given), prominent fans were named
as regional representatives (regional organizations included the Southern
Circle, the Gulf Circle, Northwest Federation, and others bearing the common
sectional names); and almost every actifan he'd visited and some he hadn't,
who received him civilly and listened to him politely, was named as a supporter
of the Cosmic Circle. The weeklies carried a hodge-podge of policy
pronouncements
by the Coordinator, recollections of his trips, a few items of general interest
and inaccuracy, and Cosmic Circle news like Rogers' being shut out of the
LA clubroom one day and Helen Bradleigh conducting a summer school for cosmic
children (she tended children for working mothers in her spare time). The
most noticable characteristic of the publications was that they were the
worst-looking legible fanzines ever published: abounding strikeovers;
paragraphs
nonexistent; edges of the stencil crowded, no spacing after periods;
misspellings;
overuse of caps, quotation marks, and underlines; wandering, unplanned
sentences;
countless simple gramatical errors like "can and has went"; store
of malapropisms like calling Widner a stolid and far-seeing fan; ad n.

T Bruce Yerke became alarmed at the prospect of publicity for fandom
directed at potential fans and the general public appearing in such garments,
and sent several fans a request for information about Degler, on which to
base a report on the Cosmic Circle. Degler reacted with violent denunciation
of Yerke, but was persuaded to cease firing till the report was prepared
and published. In the report, Yerke stated his belief that Degler was a
nearly precipitated case of schizophrenia, a paranoiac with delusions of
grandeur and persecution complex, and called for a ban on him if he refused
to reform his practices. Leading Angelenoes endorsed the report.

While he was now in LA, Superfan had gained James Kepner and other new
fen as members; and Ackerman let himself be named honorary member of one
more organization. Before long, all (except Ackerman) resigned from the
organization, and the branches that Degler had set up, the Futurian Society
of California (United Califans) and the Futurian Society of Los Angeles,
were memberless after he left.

A Floricon had been planned for an indefinite date in Live Oak, but upon
learning thru Fanewscard of the Michiconference date, Degler gave
up even his plan for a "Blitzkreig" thru the Pacific Northwest
in order to attend (however, a Columbia Science Fantasy Society for Oregon,
Olympia Fantasians, and British Columbians had been announced). He stopped
in San Francisco and gained George Ebey as a member. In Salt Lake City he
added Utah to the South-West Fantasy Unit as the Utah Cosmic Fans.
Holding the 2d Caspercon with Perdue, he borrowed money for the remainder
of the trip to Battle Creek, where he arrived on 29 Oct as the Ashleys were
beginning to move to Slan Shack. Al Ashley told him the Conference didn't
want him, and when asked, tried to explain why, but only got arguments in
return. Finally Degler said he had no place to sleep and only 60¢,
but the Ashleys refused to lend him anything.

When Superfan came back to Newcastle, Frank N. Stein, who had taken over
an Oakgrove Fantasy Society and was imputed with reestablishing Slan Slum
there, formed a Futurian Alliance to fite the old-fan clique who were
responsible
for this new Exclusion Act, the Ashley Atrocity, and were trying to keep
down the new and young fans (--all this per Claude Degler). Degler claimed
that the CC was neutral in this war, but left no shade of doubt as to where
his sympathies lay, in the fite against the "National Fantasy Fascist
Federation".